Advertisements

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

One of our favorite things to do on Charge Shot!!! is bitch about the price of games. Though it doesn’t take a trio of armchair pundits to figure out that $60 is an unreasonable fee for the vast majority of games – Far Cry 2 and Red Faction: Guerilla I will gladly pay for; HAWX or Battlestations: Pacific, not so much.

But ultimately, it’s like bitching about the weather; it sucks, but it ain’t going nowhere. So why complain? Subvert! What follows is a perfunctory list of some of gaming’s best buys, $30 and under.

Far Cry needs no introduction – one of gaming’s first open-world shooters, Crytek’s game-changer let you prowl a tropical paradise at will, free to get your brains blown out by one of the game’s many, many insanely accurate mercenaries. So what if it devolves into a corridor-crawler at the end? Far Cry stands the test of time, and Good Old Games serves it up DRM-free.

Civilization IVSource: www.direct2drive.comPrice: $19.99Equivalent price of: a 12-pack of expensive microbrew, which I will doubtlessly regret three bottles in

Do you enjoy turn-based-games? Did you like Rise of Nations, despite the occasional “WHERE THE FUCK DID HE GET THOSE BOMBERS FUCK THIS I QUIT?” Well, Rise of Nations wouldn’t exist without Civilization, perhaps PC gaming’s most pedigreed franchise. IV is the series’ apogee, summarizing more than a decade of strategy gaming and vindicating the elegant use of simple, intelligent ingredients. No flash here – this one’s all substance.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R (Start Talking About Lasers Killing Elephants, Rob) is an open world shooter based in the fantasized wastes of Chernobyl – though it bears more resemblance to Oblivion than Half Life 2. What it does, Fallout 3 does better; but for those who’ve exhausted Bethesda’s GOTY 15/10 title, it’s sure to provide an intriguing perspective. Just save, and save often – this game will blow your dome off at 500 meters, while you were still whistling along thinking it was just a bush.The Orange BoxSource: Steam, Gamestop, etc.Price: $29.99Equivalent price of: Mirror’s Edge